Only a matter of pride
by Darkstreamers
Summary: As you reflect back on life, which of the seven deadly sins controlled you? Was it Lust? Gluttony? Or greed? Perhaps sloth or wrath or even envy? Or was it pride? Pride controlled me, it was the cause of my destruction, my ultimate undoing, the sole reason for my death.
1. Prologue

_Only a matter of pride_

_Disclaimer_

Pokemon is a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokemon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

**Prologue: The Seven Deadly Sins**

When you reflect back on life in death do you finally achieve enlightenment? Do you finally realize the truth, of what governed your life? Was it school, your family or your fellow friends? I wasn't controlled by any of them, and neither did I ever experience them. No. Instead what dictated my life wasn't a man or an organization for no mere mortal could ever hope to control me. No my leash was pulled taunt by a concept, a concept of the seven deadly sins.

The seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

Firstly of the seven sins is lust. Lust, an intense desire of sexual action, also generally lusting is known for desiring money, fame and power. Lust is similar to greed in essence, with an uncontrollable need for more. The punishment suffered in hell in constant, violent, restless hurricanes lashing at your body in symbolism for their own lack of self-control.

Secondly of the seven deadly sins is gluttony. Gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything and everything to the excessiveness of producing mountains of waste from an extreme desire of food while withholding from the needy. Those who commit the sinful act of gluttony are starved to induce guilt and hurtful empathy.

Thirdly is the sin of greed, a sin of an excessive and monstrous desire and pursuit of earthly possessions. Greed is a _sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things. _Those who are considered too greedy are bound and laid face down on the ground of hell, symbolic of their unquenchable thirst for earthly materials and possessions.

Sloth is the fourth sin. Sloth is a sin of: physical and spiritual laziness, of a failure to develop, of a failure to reach your full potential and of a failure to act when needed to do so. Those who are guilty of being a sloth are forced to continuously run at their maximum speed in order for them to comprehend the sinfulness of physical laziness.

The next sin is Wrath, which is a sinful act of destruction induced by inordinate feelings of pure hatred and fury caused by: impatience, vigilantism and, most importantly, revenge. The penance for wrath is to be dismembered alive which symbolizes the act of self-destruction which is linked to acts induced by anger.

The sixth sin is the sin of jealousy, Envy. Similarly to the sin of greed and gluttony, envy is defined as an insatiable desire of other's possessions, abilities, status and traits, while also feeling deep hatred and discontentment for those who withhold these desirable qualities. The punishment for envy is to have their eyes sewn shut with wire because it represent closing their eyes from seeking sinful pleasure of seeing others brought low..

Pride is the last of the seven sins. Pride is the thought of self-importance and being special and above all others. It involves the failure to acknowledge other people and positioning of themselves as a figurehead, as a God. Those who are thought too prideful are punished by being forced to walk whilst carrying giant stone slabs in order to induce feelings of humiliation.

Pride is the most significant, serious and dangerous of the seven deadly sins. It has slain mightier foes than beyond human comprehension. It was told that pride will cause my downfall, my ultimate undoing. In hindsight I should've listened, perhaps I could have prevented my tragedy from ever occurring. Yet perhaps my pride wasn't the sole reason of my destruction, indeed perhaps my fellow companions who too possess a quality of one of the seven sins. The seven deadly sins that ruled my life and controlled it in the most barbaric way imaginable till the very end, when the lights disappeared and my body was engulfed by the darkness.

My death? It's only a matter of pride.


	2. Lust

_**Chapter One: Lust**_

_Disclaimer_

Pokemon is a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

_Keep your eyes open and guard against every sort of covetousness, because even when a person has abundance, his life does not result from the things he possesses. - Unknown _

_Suddenly the sound of screaming pierced my ears and awakened me from my deep slumber. Lifting the covers I wearily rubbed my eyelids and yawned tiredly. Feeling an abrupt wave of heat surge over me I relentlessly tugged at the collar of my sleepwear to relieve myself from the sweat pouring down my body. Finally opening my eyes I gasped in shock and felt an unanticipated strain on my insides. I stared unblinkingly at the fire-licked rotten walls of my house and continued to watch in awe as the blaze devoured my household. Clamouring out of my room I searched for my parents and when I reached the landing I could hear the sound of the woman screaming again. In my hast to find the source of the screaming, that I could swear sounds familiar, I tripped over my own feet and plummeted to the bottom of the stairs. Moaning in pain I nonetheless carried on and wandered aimlessly through obliterated doorways and over fallen debris to end up cowering in front of a shapely and aptly curved figure dressed in a tight revealing police uniform with a short skirt, round globular tits which pressed firmly against her ironed clean cut shirt with short spiky turquoise hair framing her cute face topped off with a traditional police hat to cover her front locks. _

_Unexpectedly, soft hands grabbed me and, without warning, threw me over her back. The strain on my insides grew tremendously forcing me to claw at my head to distract myself from the onslaught of pain it delivered. Instantly I knew something had happened, I knew someone had died. Although I couldn't believe it and I would insistently persist questioning where they are for months to come, I knew my parents were dead._

I arrived back to reality and groaned from reliving the same dream I suffer each night since the night my innocence was stolen, along with my mother and father. It took a deep breath to calm me down and allow me to view my surrounding and plan a further cause of action unhindered. Glancing up I had to squint at the bright sunlight showering me from overhead and I also had to clamp my hands over my earholes for protection against the bitter sweet tweeting of the numerous starly resting in their nests atop their branches. Realising my situation I focused on staying completely still to avoid rustling the olive-coloured leaves of the highest bent branch I could comfortably find perch on. Even moving an inch could alert the pokemon living below. Any sound that causes them to notice me would be the end of me. Now hearing footsteps approaching from the west, I silently lifted my head and peaked in the direction I heard them coming from. Emerging from the distance was an Infernape which, according to my worn old notebook, is a rarity in Sinnoh and is considered to be a very valuable pokemon. Shame it had the infortune to encounter me and become my next meal.

I dangled myself quietly of the edge as the flaming ape ventured directly beneath me, I let go of my grasp on the branch and slid my combat knife out of my inner pocket and landing feet-first on the creature I thrust the blade through its throat. Not even having the time to squeal the animal just slumped forward into my arms, dead as a Doduo. Circling my arms around it and hooking my hands together I slung the pokemon onto my back and persisted to leave for a less populated area for some downtime to fully relish my newest catch.

I soon found such a suitable location and I laid down to rest in the soaring grass and proceeded to barbarically tear into my meal after having the monkey skinned and its inedible parts removed and left for wild pokemon. I pondered on which task I should tackle first as my teeth tore another chunk out of the chimp's ass. Forgetting it for now, I finished eating and ditched the carcass in search for a specific pokemon that I knew would be useful on my adventure, a specific type of pokemon which conveniently can be found in forests.

Crawling through the undergrowth, I nudged my tinted shades up to flatten down my crimson hair, which would recede over my deep onyx eyes and block my view, to glance suspiciously at the various full-grown plants, crooked trees and all the variety of Pokémon associated with forests, especially those pokemon that have known habitats located near rivers, those I'm particularly interested in. Creeping closer my ashen-shaded jeans snagged onto a vine, viciously I drew my combat army knife from the inner pocket of my silver jacket, which is hidden beneath a black overcoat, and slashed the vine at the core and hastily I removed the cut end from my leg with a violent yank. Closing in on the edge of the river bend the sound of the swift-running river clashing against moss-covered rocks reverberated within my eardrums. Hundreds of orange-plated fish swooped in and out and the water, speeding through the river towards the waterfall that catered of the cliff-side in the distance.

A snout rose from the surface of the clear body of water, rising up and leaping onto the trampled grass to reveal a creature with: apricot-coloured skin, a pale oval belly that reached its snout, two tails with cream-colored tips which weaved around it, stubby arms with cerulean fins decorating the sides of its forearms, an amber collar wrapped round its neck with two spikes coming out the rear of its head with thick black whisker marks framing its face with twin globes in its eyes that stared upon me with innocent curiosity. Finishing scrutinizing me, the Pokémon then turned around in favour of gawking at a second Buizel that rose from the river and climbed out onto the other side with one pale oval adorning its back unlike the first Buizel with only one which revealed its gender to be female.

Two weasels? Fucking fantastic.

Sprinting across the mud-ridden ground I leaped up and fly-kicked it in the back, forcing the weasel back into the river and alerting the other one to flee in the face of danger. It shot out the water as tiny droplets of clear-blue liquid cascaded around it, it spat out gallons of spit at my smug mug-toppling me over into the harsh bark of a tree trunk. With blood dribbling down my chin I, nonetheless deterred, spat it out, gritted my teeth and I pulled myself up and ran at the formidable creature and threw a haymaker at it that resounded with a sickening crunch of its jaw shattering in half.

It too now sported crimson liquid smeared across its caved-in face from the resultant force of the blow, and when this realisation sunk in its thick skull it began growling menacingly, though with its snag tooth now missing it just looked ridiculous, evidenced when I could not stop my throat erupting in mocking laughter which further enraged the animal. Severely pissed, it raised its right arm in preparation of an attack which started glowing an ominous azure colour.

"Ice punch, shit! I thought you were a wild Pokémon!"

Anticipating the attack, I leaned backwards and tilted my head sideways just in time to narrowly escape a direct impact of its arm which barely scraped the tip of my nose but none the less spread ice all over my face and covered my nose in an ice block. Smashing the ice block, and thankfully not my nose along with it, into tiny pieces I asked tauntingly, "You trying to give me frostbite or something weasel?" Smirking in reply it continued to wildly punch me, barely missing each time. With a crack of my leg I let loose a lightning-fast kick to its abdomen leaving the pokemon winded and proceeded to dropkick its ugly snout. Watching it rise again I predicted its next move and wisely barrel-rolled left, easily dodging its hydro pump. Substituting and then beginning to perform a rain dance confirmed my theory that this is no wild pokemon; it was definitely trained at one point. Quickly flattening its substitute with three consecutive stomps on its face I dashed over to the animal a little too late when I suddenly felt numerous water droplets pelting my crimson hair. "It's raining which only means-" Interrupting before I could blink my opponent's fist slammed itself into my stomach; with quick inspection proved likely to leave a permanent dent that would be forever etched into my skin.

"Your ability is swift-swim right? Your speed increases when it rains".

No wonder it used so much energy with its substitute to perform that one move. Opting to flee and delve deeper into the forest in a tactical retreat, not cowardly running away mind you, for a chance to hide and ambush it, the subject of that choice instead decided to forget that and instead attempt to knock my block off.

Yelping in pain and anguish I scampered away behind a thick, obese tree trunk that effortlessly concealed my existence and swept his feet with my right leg when the little weasel rushed on by where I preceded to leap up and during its mid-fall, round-house kick him to the ground leaving the little bastard in blissful unconsciousness.

Stopping to desperately gulp for much needed air, I reached into my inner jacket pocket for a scarlet and white capsule. Striding proudly towards the downed creature I drop the pokeball on him releasing a flash of blinding red light. Rolling to a stop, I hesitantly grasped my pokeball, my first Pokémon. Chucking it into the air I screamed, "Come on out Buizel!" In another flash of bright light came out the newest addition to the team. The Buizel was immediately on guard and raised its fists threateningly, in return I commanded the weasel to calm down and I soothingly stroked its back when it obeyed. In reply to its questioning look whenever I spoke of it as a weasel I elaborated that "Weasel" is his name now.

Growling at his new pet name yet seemingly no longer interested, it left with me hurrying alongside it with him in search of his precious previous female company. Stalking up to her after we found her he gained a dazed gaze in his eyes as he leered at her. Brimming with confidence the weasel began sniffing her ass and then started humping her leg. Laughing loudly and not surprised at all, as I knew Buizels are known to act like dogs, I opted to simply ignore it in favour of reaching into my back pocket for my pokedex and levelling it with Weasel to connect to his species' online profile, via facial recognition, which contains a data bank on everything about it. Successfully scanning Weasel for a match to a profile within its data bank, the metallic voice of the pokedex screeched out, _"__Buizel, the Sea Weasel Pokémon. It stores air in the sacs on its neck and uses them as flotation devices, and__swims__by spinning its two tails like a propeller"._

Looking back I noticed that the female had disappeared as well as the male which presumably had gone in search of another mate. Searching through the wilderness I chanced upon him hiding within the shrubs and giggling like a little school girl over two females who, unbelievably, had managed to seduce the Buizel without ever noticing his presence. Briefly I wondered that perhaps I should have nicknamed him Lust instead. Recalling him back into the safety of the inside of his pokeball, and for the safety of those two pokemon he was leering at, I thought to myself as I stared beyond the human limits and soaked in the beautiful scenery of mountains peaking off in the distance and sighed. "Lust hmm?"

So inappropriately appropriate it's sickening.

_Author's notice: Please review the this chapter as it's the first official chapter of the first story I've ever written so feel free to leave comments consisting of constructive criticism or even just flame me, as long as it contains an adequate reason why the chapter wasn't up to standard for I need an indication on what needs improving and if possible how. And also, don't hesitate to correct my grammar or spelling or even just let me know that's a problem that I need to focus on._

_I'm Weasel12 and thanks for reading. _


	3. Contact

Chapter Two: Contact

_Disclaimer_

Pokemon is a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

"_Call me Roark the Rock!"__–__Oreburgh City Gym Leader _

_Adjusting to life without your parents is difficult, stressful and ultimately impossible. You can't just adjust to life, you never will. Your experiences shape who you are, what you become, it can twist the very nature of your being. Without a doubt that night my parents died I changed, and not for the better._

It took a week of travelling through the dense forest, fighting pokemon and training up my weasel, in case I encountered any pokemon trainers, for the grass to finally fade away and level off to be replaced with dirt and gravel paved roads which led to the entrance of Oreburgh City, the city where I would find my new contact. To avoid attracting attention I smartened up and flattened my creases and acted civil towards those who were living here locally. Heading north-east I casually waved and greeted any passer-by along the way to the pokemon center. Leaving my pokemon at the desk without a word for the nurse to heal, I used my time before I would receive my Buizel back to meet my contact.

Peering around the room I saw a number of trainers of all ages chatting freely and boasting of their skills in pokemon battling, all of whom I carefully avoided in case they decided to communicate with me. I hadn't had a full-length conversation with someone other than my various contacts over the years and I had no desire to change that fact. Finally my vision caught a suspicious figure in a top-hat and a flowing ebony overcoat of his own, sliding across the pokecenter with his slicked, shiny pointed-shoes that squeaked on contact with the checkered floor. Watching him reach the personal computer in the corner I knew this man was the contact I was looking for. Strolling past him I leaned back against the PC and took a fag out of my front zip and shoved between my lips.

The black-clad man stretched his arm out and lit it with his lighter. Stuffing his lighter back in his overcoat he leaned closer to whisper as handed me a photo of a person with wavy violet hair and rotund glasses on his pale face wearing a burnt-orange suit and matching trousers covering his charcoal –coloured footwear. "Here" he grunted, "that man is Lucian, the last member of Sinnoh's elite four. Your employer desires a powerful physic pokemon for his project and he needs you to steal one for him. Lucian's Girafarig is a prime candidate for this". He handed me another photograph of a hoofed, quadruped pokemon with an elongated neck at the front carrying a head that sported: a pink nose, pointed ears, cerulean eyes and two milky-white antennas with its front half yellow with black spots and its back halve the opposite with pink spikes running along it and a second head on its tail that grinned maliciously.

"In order to meet Lucian you're going to have to win all eight gym badges of the region and successfully complete the pokemon league. After you confront Lucian battle him until he releases his Girafarig and then subdue him and his pokemon and capture it. The next pokemon league is beginning in six months so you have a time limit on this mission. Don't be late".

Great. A walk in the park then. I felt that the conservation had ended so I thanked him for the lighter and proceeded to leave the center after receiving my pokemon back in full health when he gripped my shoulder at the doorway and dragged me backwards, "Remember this employer of yours isn't a guy to fuck around with. He's got money and the connections to make you disappear. You'll be six feet under the moment he learns you've failed. Don't. Fuck. Up". And with that ominous message lingering in the air he vanished and left me fuming and tense from his parting words.

To cool off I wandered around the streets attempting to find anything to occupy myself with when I happened to cross the museum. I ventured through the museum and gazed at the innumerable amount of fossil collections they had on display. I had always been interested in ancient history and the mythology surrounding the legends of the first pokemon, each legendary in their own right: Mew, the container of every pokemon's DNA in existence and Arceus, known to be the creator of the universe to name a few legends of the dozens that exist in the world.

I caught a glimpse of a display case containing the ancient pokemon Kabuto and so I paced towards it and giggled in glee. Promptly realising myself, I covered it with a coughing fit and almost died inside at how that must have sounded. Though I quickly noticed that someone else clearly heard me and knew too how ridiculous I sounded when I heard silent laughter behind me and felt soft hands petting my hair like some common dog.

"Aww, that's so adorable, so you like ancient pokemon too hmm".

Turning to affront the perpetrator my face instantaneously grew into a look of horror in a positive correlation to the cuteness of the girl currently petting my hair like I'm still five. And boy was she cute! She was stunning with her lengthy auburn hair that reached her shoulders where her bountiful boobs dangled and bounced hypnotically, which were pronounced by her extremely short white tank top, and her shapely thin legs that were covered by light-blue shorts which barely protected her decency and to finish off, her high-heeled shoes which complemented her look of such a beautiful chick. I shamelessly stared level with her breasts as she continued on aimlessly rambling about our pokemon history and how interesting it all was which right now I didn't give two-shits about.

"-and did you know that Kabutops were previously sea-dwellers, evident by its secondary water typing, that adapted to living on the land due to evolution".

"Wha-What, of course", I replied nervously, chuckling in fright, "don't be an idiot, everyone knows that". Though I honestly didn't have a fucking clue what on earth she was on about as I was too busy admiring her assets. She then continued on incoherently talking of the greatest pokemon scientists of all time and their great discoveries when I just tuned out though she didn't know that so I politely remarked, "It seems like you really know a lot about pokemon".

"No, not really, I'm simply fascinated by them". Out of nowhere an embarrassing theme song about little ponies rung out causing her to blush a deep shade of scarlet and apologise profusely and turn around to answer a phone call. Several seconds and half a conversation later she hung up and turned back round. "Oh... well I have to go, urgent business you see, but it was nice meeting you..." Being as socially awkward as I was I didn't comprehend that she was asking for my name, and even if I did I would've told the bitch to take her cute, ohh so cute, little ass and get the fuck out of my face, and so I just blankly looked at her, waiting for her to leave.

Chuckling good-naturedly she crept closer causing me to back-off out of reflex and levelled her head to the side of mine and gently pinch my ear whispering seductively, "The name's Sasayakana, in case we ever meet again. I sure hope we do". With that she stalked off with her hips swaying rhythmically and seemingly bouncing to a beat. That certainly came out of nowhere, though I'm definitely not complaining as I sure as hell preferred sexy Sasayakana then textbook-nerd Sasayakana. "Sasayakana, what a weird name, it means modest, right?" Though of course since I was speaking to myself I received no answer.

In preparation for the gym battle and the beginning of my journey I decided to explore the coal mine of Oreburgh City and train up my Buizel, not that I needed to or anything but I thought better safe than sorry. Reassuring myself that it was a sound idea I continued on only to nearly call it quits when I arrived to sweaty muscular men hefting heavy loads back and forth. One of the workers, who had sunlight reflecting of their clean shaven bold head, greeted me in a deep voice as he, to my irritation, continually flexed his muscles with each word he spoke and inquired my business there. Hesitantly, I replied I was there for training when, for being so innocently nervous, he yanked me off my feet, placed me in a headlock and grinded his calloused knuckles into my head for no good reason expect to show "compassion" with a friendly noogie. Bloody wanker.

I entered the mine and I was instantly impressed by the efficiency of the coal miners. For shits and giggles I battled every worker off duty on their break to not only annihilate them with a water pokemon, which was super-effective against all their pokemon, which were of course all rock-type pokemon, but to also antagonize and humiliate them after their defeat was obvious and assured. That's until I met a trainer who had heard of me and my cruel methods that was concerned about how I was treating his fellow co-workers and so predictably he challenged me to battle. Confident any pokemon he released would flee terrified of my water-type pokemon I agreed without a second thought and released my pokemon from within its capsule. "Come on out, Weasel!" I was confident and ready to deliver a good spanking until he revealed his pokemon wasn't a rock or ground-type pokemon but a fighting type one.

"Reveal yourself Machoke". In a flash of red lightning appeared a bipedal, tailless creature with purple skin, and three grey ridges on top if its head, red tear marks on its arms with red piercing eyes wearing wrestling tights with a golden belt strapped around it. I reached for my pokedex to confirm the creature's identity and listened attentively to the metallic voice, "Machoke undertakes bodybuilding every day even as it helps people with tough, physically demanding labour. On its days off, this Pokémon heads to the fields and mountains to exercise and train".

Angered and ill-tempered I screeched "No fair! You're supposed to have a rock or ground-type pokemon, not a fighting-type. This is bullshit!" In response he spoke back in a matter-of-fact-tone that there was no rules or such an agreement about that prior to the battle so it wasn't against the rules. "Just because I work for Roark and occasionally help out in his gym doesn't mean I have to follow his preferred typing for his pokemon" he informed me condescendingly.

Further enraged I commanded my Buizel to blast that motherfucker's pokemon with a hydro-pump. Though my opponent was quick on the ball and swiftly ordered his Machoke to dodge it which it managed by clearly rolling away. "Dodge this! Weasel, riddle the ground with holes with the special move I taught you then use hydro-pump again". Obeying, the sea weasel littered the opponent's side of the field with holes using dig and then left the tunnel and aimed a hydro-pump directly inside.

The worker realised my plan and bellowed his pokemon to move away from the holes, yet he was too late, the water blasted out every hole leaving his Machoke unable to escape from the receiving end of an ass-whooping. Seeing it still standing I ordered Weasel to use Ice-punch on the remaining water left over from the last attack and froze the entirety of the cave floor and Machoke's feet firmly to the ground. "Use agility and follow up with a quick attack". Circling itself while slowly accelerating it launched off the ground and cracked his knuckles against the fighter's face. Free from the ice which previously trapped it from the resultant impact of the blow to its face, the Machoke swore bloody revenge and ironically enough, used revenge without consent from its trainer, who was too busy trying to break free from the ice himself to pay attention, to beat the shit out of my pokemon. Replying back in kind the two stayed in a stalemate locked in a fistfight that eagerly became a brawl. Both pokemon took shots at each other as though they were taking turns, one throws a haymaker at the other and then that other one throws one back, neither making any attempt to dodge and instead just tense up to soften the blow. It has become a battle of raw strength and my little weasel didn't stand a chance in a contest of pure strength. Thinking quickly I came up with a plan, a plan to encourage my pokemon to fight harder.

"Come on you pussy, slam that Machoke's fucking head in!" Growling but otherwise not responding or taking heed of my words I decided to take another approach to encourage him to fight harder. "Knock that bastard off his feet and I might just catch you some female companions to travel with". Instantaneous knockout. I impress even myself sometimes. Humiliated, the worker recalled his unconscious Machoke and silently scurried of as if in hope to not incur my wrath. Recalling my pokemon back into its pokeball too I left the coal mine, ego sufficiently boosted and Weasel satisfyingly trained I was ready for my gym battle which I knew was going to be a cakewalk.

I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Upon searching for the gym, I came across a woman named Hilary who wished to trade an Abra for a Machop, noting this down for later I denied her and continued on searching. Then at last I found the gym by noticing the rather giant logo of the pokeball that, quite frankly, I should have spotted from miles away. Striding in and up to the counter I leaned on it and waited for the missing receptionist to return. A woman in a pink outfit and hat that screamed _nurse fetish_ returned to her desk and beamed a mega-watt smile at me with sparklingly-white teeth while winking sultrily as she grabbed the phone that was presumably on hold and mouthed to wait "one second". Patiently I waited off on the side of the room till she placed the phone back down and I once again strode up to the desk and leaned on it. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'd like to register myself for a gym battle, any reservation available this week will be acceptable".

Turning to face her computer screen and numerous clicks later she faced me again, "Nobodies made any reservations for tonight if that's suitable." Thanking her I agreed and made to leave but her hand prevented me from doing so, "And just so you know, I'm free tonight as well" she admitted, giggling as she spoke. Giggling myself I left the gym and promised to do just that. Re-entering the gym several hours later for my scheduled appointment, I hastily found the gym leader and introduced myself. Obviously delighted to meet a new challenger he greeted me and introduced himself as well.

"You can call me Roark the rock!"


	4. Roark

Chapter Three: Roark

_Disclaimer_

Pokemon is a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

_Through the study of fossils I had already been initiated into the mysteries of prehistoric creations.-Oreburgh City Gym Leader_

_With my parents now deceased, the policewoman sent me to an orphanage to live the remainder of my childhood there. It was clear from the first moment I entered and interacted with my fellow inmates that there was no room for me. I didn't fit in. At all. _

_Life in this orphanage was hard, a past life I desire to forget. It's the location of my troubled past and of my first victim. In there no one would keep eye contact with me though they were certainly not discouraged to speak of me, though only when they think I'm not within hearing distance. Overhearing conversations is torture when you're the subject of it. You hear them mutter, whispering in the dark and only when I approach them do the muttering finally cease. As soon as my back turns they begin once again. Talk of adoption floated to my ears, who are they kidding? They aren't looking for parents, no, instead they're finding some poor souls to dump their troublesome child on. I frightened them and so they wished to get rid of me as soon as they could manage and erase any memories of my existence the second I left. _

_I gave them no such reprieve. _

"Welcome! This is the Oreburgh Pokémon Gym! I'm Roark; you can call me Roark the rock, Oreburgh's cities gym leader! I'm but one Trainer who decided to walk proudly with Rock-type Pokémon! As the Gym Leader, I need to see your potential as a trainer. And, I'll need to see the toughness of the pokémon that battle with you! This will be a three on three pokemon battle and only you can substitute pokemon. Are you fine with that challenger?" No, I wasn't fine with that for I only have one pokemon. Yet I still knew I could take this guy anyway so I accepted the challenge. "No problems here". Acting as though I had a choice I wavered and hesitantly grabbed my Buizel's pokeball out of the six strapped to the bandolier wrapped around my waist, "Come on out, Weasel!"

"You too Golem!" A bipedal pale-brown creature, plated with rocks to form a shell and with muscular, stubby, clawed arms and legs poking out with a turtle-like head appeared from Roark's pokeball. As customary I checked the pokemon out with my pokedex, "_It _is said to live in volcanic craters on mountain peaks. Once a year, it sheds its hide and grows larger. The shed hide crumbles and returns to the soil". The referee then spoke out, "This is a three on three pokemon battle, and only the challenger may substitute pokemon. Begin!"

"Golem! Start with rollout". Retracting its arms and legs within its hollow shell it rolled becoming a blur as it grinded against the rocky ground and barrelled towards my Buizel. "Weasel, use hydro-pump and aim it to the right-side of its body". Hurriedly, Weasel followed its command and let loose a torrent of water digging into its right-side and gradually forcing it to turn left and veer off course and smash itself into the gym's wall just before it would have flattened my pokemon into a pancake. Taking advantage of the situation I directed Weasel to fire a chain of water-guns at the immobilised animal. It finally jerked free from its temporary cage and tried to glare a hole in my head. "Forget him Golem! Focus and use hyperbeam!"

"Hyper-what now!?" Not stopping to answer my question, jerk, it continued its attack and gathered tons of energy into generating a highly condensed energy sphere and launched it in a beam, targeting Weasel. Panicked I scanned the list of the moves Buizel knew and then I suddenly remembered that Weasel must have been a trainer's pokemon previously and so I risked believing his trainer was a competent one, "Quick, use double-team!" Multiple copies of the sea weasel shimmered into existence successfully concealing the original and confused the rock-turtle into destroying one of the copies. I instructed him and his copies to circle the opponent and launch a ferocious assault, slamming fist upon fist into its rock-hard skin until his arms became a blur of action leaving a bruised and battered shell of a golem to stumble backwards. Then something completely mind-boggling happened, the Golem started shedding its skin leaving the old shell to crumble into dust and a new, larger and tougher shell to replace it. "Oh come on! All of the times in the year it conveniently chooses now to shed its hide! That's unfair!"

"No its not" countered Roark, "I purposefully advised my Golem to withhold shedding its skin until I needed it to recover in a gym battle, kind of like when pokemon refuse to evolve and instead delay it for as long as possible. It's quite simple really". Finishing his lecture he declared Golem to attack with sandstorm effectively blinding me and my pokemon. "Now finish the weasel off with a focus blast!" Generating a white globe with glowed and radiated power within its palms, it fully stretched out its arms letting leash of the attack which shot off in our direction. "Substitute, now!" Reacting faster than expected, Weasel followed through with the attack which barely, yet successfully, managed to block the focus blast.

"Again Golem!" Knowing that my pokemon couldn't sustain using another substitute I opted to wing it and take a different approach, "Weasel, deflect it with hydro-pump". On contact the two moves grinded against each other in a stalemate, though with him continuously pumping more water into his attack, the hydro-pump upstaged the focus blast and propelled it back into the original user of the move. The golem took critical damage from the super-effective attack and left it dazed, unsparingly I leapt at the opportunity and forced Weasel to close in and ice-punch in in the mouth, freezing its insides which coerced it into collapsing allowing the referee to announce his presence, "Golem is unable to battle therefore the Gym Leader will choose his next pokemon".

"You're up next, Aerodactyl". Out of its pokeball came a ferocious, prehistoric pokemon that possessed serrated, saw-like fangs that seemingly could tear through the throats of its prey, wings that have light purple skin stretched from its side to its arms, a grey oval-shaped body, and a tail with a triangular tip. As usual I ran its image through my dex's database, _"Aerodactyl is a Pokémon from the age of dinosaurs. It was regenerated from genetic material extracted from amber. It is imagined to have been the king of the skies in ancient times."_

The Aerodactyl seemingly stared through my soul with its soulless emerald eyes. "Use a combination move of rock slide and flamethrower!" Letting loose a loud cry the flying pokemon breathed out a jet of flames and at the same time caused a row of rocks to appear out the sky and rain upon the battlefield, catching on fire mid-fall. "Dodge them!" I screamed. Cool as a cucumber, my pokemon calmly flipped, side-stepped and rolled out of each flaming rock's trajectory, except the last. Noticing that Weasel would fail to escape it I ordered it to drench the flames to reduce the damage by cooling the water into vapour and slowing the rock's descent. Solidly connecting, the weasel still stood its ground, digging a trench from its feet due to the great impact of Aerodactyl's move.

"Now Aerodactyl, combine agility with ancientpower and aim for its chest, its largest surface area, for if this misses you'll have wasted tons of valuable energy". Screeching in approval the prehistoric animal raised several clumps of rock by using ancientpower and sent them careering faster than I could blink due to the effects of agility. "Weasel! Use dig to escape its range." It didn't matter though as Roark the Rock had a bank-full of imaginative ideas, "Use fire blast in the tunnel it's dug!" Hovering over the hole the Aerodactyl fired a stream of flames that erupted out of another hole the Buizel just escaped from to avoid the attack which in turn fired a stream of water that gushed from its jaw and brutally carved a dent in the pokemon's skin on contact. Enraged the flying rock-type pokemon started thrusting its tail at its opponent who constantly dodged by continuously escaping through the ground via dig, meaning the two pokemon ended up playing some fucked-up version of whack-a-weasel. "Aero, end this with earthquake!"

"Shit! Are you trying to kill us all dipshit!" I felt a rumble beneath me and eventually felt the earth moving, cracking and splitting causing the whole battlefield to randomly raise patches of ground higher than others, completely wrecking the entire gym. The walls started collapsing and the ceiling began caving in. Debris showered down and bombarded me forcing me to forget the battle in favour of keeping my life. My pokemon too lost focus on his enemy and was too currently flipping and sliding to avoid being flattened. Finally easing to a halt, the tremors ceased bringing relief to both me and my pokemon. "Oops, sorry about that, got a tad over-excited".

"A tad! You destroyed _your own _gym you fucktard!"

"Chill man, chill. I'm sure my insurance will cover that, after all it was only an accident".

"Accident!?" I hollered, "That was your own darn fault".

"Tsk, technicalities" he muttered, "Killjoy-whore. Anyway! Let's get back to the fight. Aero, finish this with thunder-fang".

Screeching as the flying creature generated electricity in its fangs I just smirked and taunted him back. "That's what you said last time, and look what happened to your Golem, 'cause the same thing happening to your Aerodactyl! Weasel tense up and wait it out, don't move. Let it come closer until-Now! Use ice-punch to grab onto its fangs then release a scald attack". As the prehistoric bird had about to gobble him and chew him up my Buizel covered its hands in ice to prevent it getting electrocuted, as ordered, and snatched the fangs keeping its mouth open and shot scalding-hot water into the bird's throat. Being boiled alive clearly hurt as it started thrashing and writhing in pain while flapping its wings fanatically. "Great job, I can see you're a talented trainer, however, there's no way your sea-weasel can survive this. Aero, hyperbeam!"

Aware of the lag of the move for the time it took to charge I ordered my Weasel to close in on it and as soon as the Aerodactyl was about to launch its beam I commanded Weasel to slam-dunk it. Literally. So leaping up my weasel spread its right-paw and hammered Aero's mouth closed meaning the hyperbeam set off in its own mouth, incinerating it from the inside leaving a burnt carcass rotting into the remains of the gym. "Unfortunate, yet deaths occur, there's no changing that". Sullenly he recalled his deceased pokemon and released his final pokemon; a bipedal, large, dark-grey dinosaur which has a blue stripe on its tail and one on each of its knees and wrists along with a spike on each knee. It also has a blue collar on its neck with two spikes on it and red eyes that are obstructed by its dome-shaped head alongside two short spikes located on the pokemon's nose. A Rampardos, _"Its skull withstands impacts of any magnitude. As a result, its brain never gets the chance to grow."_

"Rampardos use surf". Implausibly, the dinosaur was able to follow through with Roark's command, evident by the sky-high tidal wave flooding the entirety of the destroyed gym and receding to my pokemon's feet, though damaging my weasel little because of its type-resistance to water-type moves. "What was the point of that, wait never mind, _your Rampardos_ can _use surf? _A rock-type using a water-type move, now I've really seen it all". Ignoring me to instead concentrate on the battle he called another move that shocked me to the core, no pun intended, "Rampardos, use shock wave". A blinding light ensued, sending a bolt of lightning directly at Weasel, "Dodge it!" Already in motion he leapt towards the bolt of electricity and swerved around to only land on the drenched ground on ended up getting electrocuted anyway when the attack was conducted by the water-logged gym.

"You see", _great another lecture_, "it's a common misinterpretation that shock-wave is unavoidable because it was promoted as such during the war, a campaign led by Lt. Surge, a gym leader of the Kanto region. Nobody would vainly try to dodge an _unavoidable_ attack so it always remained an unavoidable attack. That's why I had Rampardos use surf, with so the attack could be conducted by the water creating a combo attack that is a truly inescapable move. Now enough of that, Ra-dos, use another shock wave".

"No matter, I'll simply freeze the ground then". Taking heed of its trainer's words and using its initiative, Weasel ice-punched the ground, freezing it and the water changing the element and environment of the battlefield, entrapping Roark's pokemon up to its abdomen in an ice block. "Ra-dos use fire-blast to melt the ice". A quick burst of blazing flames later, the creature was free once again. Time to use my ace in the hole, "Weasel use rain dance". Shortly after droplets of rain poured down when eventually it rained full-pelt activating Weasel's ability swift-swim. "Now lay it on him!" Darting across the battleground in a blink of an eye, he proceeded to _lay it on him _with two fast jabs to the eyes and an empowered undercut to the dinosaur's lungs leaving it winded. The battle ensued with both pokemon bashing each other using every limb they had including their tails. "Rampardos! Use iron-tail to clear it away". Its tail grew shiny and whiplashed Buizel to the other side of the field. With Roark's pokemon safe from harm within a descent distance from my mine he started smirking which gradually became full-blown laughter. I questioned what was so funny yet it took him several minutes to calm down from his hissy fit and answer me, "The rain. It has a secondary effect you know, other than boosting water-types moves and creating a by-product of increasing your particular pokemon's speed, it make a certain powerful move a hundred per cent accurate.

Thunder!"

On cue his pokemon screeched and released burst of electricity in the form of thunder. "Substitute Weasel". A copy appeared and took the hit for the original burning to a fine crisp with blackened skin. "Now use sonicboom on that motherfucker to daze it then use a combination of ice-punch and aqua-tail". Twin tails glowing white, Buizel fired of multiple shockwaves digging into Rampardos neck and successfully stunning it long enough to surround himself in a tornado of liquid and launch himself into his opposition, freezing the water mid-attack to create a spear of ice around him that was thrust into the softer underbelly of the creature, shattering the ice on contact.

"Rampardos, use zen-headbutt and knock it away". Rampardos roared as its head commenced to undertake an ominous azure glow and charged forwards. "Weasel, finish this with water pulse!" "Rampardos, defend with a fire punch". Weasel, without indication to or conformation from his trainer, dashed toward his contender and ejected a sphere of condensed water out between Buizel's palms heading for the creature's elbow, pressuring its arm at the joint to smash itself in the chin and allowing the animal stagger slowly backwards. I held my breath as the creature stumbled until it conclusively settled into unconsciousness. "Seems you are indeed worthy of the coal badge", handing me the badge that vaguely resembled a pokeball and a boulder combined, "Good luck on your future journey, but be warned, the seven gym leaders ahead of you are far stronger than me. And before you go, some parting advice for your trip, many obstacles you will encounter on your travels can only be solved through the use of certain techniques. One such move is rock-smash. A fgihting-tye move designed to remove boulders and large objects out of your way. You need one of your teammates to be able to use this move to continue your path and reach the pokemon league. In order to learn this move you must condition your pokemon with harsh workouts to maximize their fitness level and their upper-body strength is key to the technique". He mumbled on about training and the mine as waved without looking back as he left the ruins of the gym for someone else, most likely his subordinates, to fix it.

Leaving the gym myself, my face broke out in a demonic grin as the realization of my feat dawned on me, my first gym badge, my first step towards the completion of the job, was accomplished without hindrance. Another thought hit me, my fleeting dream, a dream that I considered unachievable because of my current occupation and its risks, could actually be possible, within sight and my grasp. Forgetting about that for a later date I briefly wondered on the past event that have transpired these past few days and suddenly I couldn't help but giggle perversely as I recalled the receptionist's parting words.

It wasn't until I returned to her later that night did I realize she only was only kidding.

_Author's notice: Please review and comment whether or not you loved the action in this chapter. Also don't forget to mention in your review which pokemon you want the main character to obtain next, though the pokemon must be from the first generation and cannot be a water-type. That's all folks, so thanks for listening. Weasel12, out. _


	5. Schooled

_Chapter Four: Schooled_

_Disclaimer_

Pokémonis a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

"_It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride."__–__John Ruskin _

_Despite my disbelief in the matter, I was somehow chosen for adoption. These new parents were weird, they dressed shadily and their eyes veered off in any and every direction as if on lookout. Like they were checking in case someone tried to stab them in the back. Suspicious-looking was a clear understatement, even for the minds of children of a supposedly ignorant and naïve nature. I could not fathom a reason to let that deter me, however, from allowing such curious characters to be my new carers. Taking the initiative I greeted both with an alluring grin in an imitation of the others seeking refuge within family homes. _

_I sought to question why they would adopt the problem child of an orphanage yet decided to settle it later and so I continued acting innocently in their presence. The reason eventually became clear. An orphan is a perfect tool to shape and bend to the one's will and won't be remembered and sought out as they have no family. And presumably, they chose me specifically as I was unwanted, even by the other orphans and employees, which meant no one would care or even notice the lack of my presence. It was to ensure no one would later check up on me to verify my safety which could compromise their security. It was a form of…_

_Insurance_

Traversing the wilderness once more and forgoing the traditional circuit of then reaching Eterna City after receiving the coal badge, I instead set off for the west, as I received a call of a side job requesting a particular pokemon for a very important client. In order to catch it I left in search of it in route two-zero-three which lead to the next destination, Jubilife, which was the city en route to Canalave City, the location of my next gym battle for the mine badge and the next step towards battling the League and the Elite Four.

Thinking it clever to avoid nagging trainers, I travelled at the dead of night alongside route two-hundred and three with it just out of sight in case of any nocturnal pokemon trainers hanging around. In my paranoia I concealed myself as well with nature by covering my hair in a military-styled headgear and coating the pale complexion of my skin with dirt that masked myself to easily camouflage with the bark of trees and the patches of ground devoid of colour, life and vegetation.

The employer of this side quest happens to be a frequent and rich customer seeking the perfect starter pokemon for his daughter, which is why I was selected for it by a high recommendation from my boss. In my hunt I ended up fending off the wild for the majority of the journey and devouring some of the fleshier ones. That's, of course, after removing the bullet from between their head's from my revolver I conceal in a holster that's stashed in the innards of my jacket.

A rustling noise sounds out from the shrubs of the dense forest and I whipped out my revolver and trained its sight onto the target only for it to reveal itself to be a Kirlia, a creature that danced and twirled to its own rhythm. A creature with ghost-white skin with oval arms connected to a torso that spreads out in the appearance of a tutu, thin mint-coloured legs with similar coloured hair that curved inwards to a single focus point covering its right-eye with two bangs reaching each shoulder and two crimson horns sprouting out of its head. The mechanical voice of Dexter detailed the pokemon's description, "_Kirlia uses the horns on its head to amplify its psychokinetic power. When the Pokémon uses its power, the air around it becomes distorted, creating mirages of non-existent scenery_."

Startled by its sudden convenient arrival, it took several moments to register the seriousness of the situation and so I briskly enlarged my Weasel's pokeball and set it free of its confinements to pounce on the tutu-clad pokemon. I also checked the gender of the pokemon, while the two pokemon enacted a stare-down, from the pokedex as the mission was to catch a Gallade which Kirlia can only involve into after being exposed to a dawn stone. Relief flooded my veins as its gender was confirmed to be male, coming across such a creature is a rarity in itself, never mind finding one of the correct gender you were hoping for.

Without hesitation, Weasel broke into action with a super-effective pursuit that clobbered the Kirlia face-flat to the ground. Repeating the move a second time the dancer was ready and just teleported out of the way each time I kept at the dark attack. Becoming futile to continue I set my pokemon to complete my favourite combination of dig and hydro-pump, producing gallons of pure liquid to erupt from each hole scattered across the now barren area, ensnaring into a tight spot and progressively drowning the poor sod. Teleporting to safety once again it released a pulse of energy that seemingly rejuvenated itself and, quite surprisingly, it seemed to perk up my pokemon too. As a follow-up it raised its tiny arms to the sky generating a violet glow which illuminated the leaves attached to branches in an eerie way. Thousands of leaves undertook shined this colour before they were raise up and clustered together by telekinesis and hurled at my partner.

"Blizzard!"

At breakneck speed my orange furry pokemon blew out a gust of ice-chilling wind that froze each leaf into a icicle and redirected them back at the original user slicing several deep cuts into the creature as it failed to dodge in time. Resilient though, it got back up from being knocked onto its ass and planted its feet firmly in the ground, digging a minuscular trench, and used a flash which burned brightly like a solar flare as it prepared its own special technique. Kirlia focused its energy and blood flow into its head and unleashed its physic power full throttle, with its boost in power it uprooted entire trees with a single flick of its wrist propelled them in a straight line in a direct attempt to impale and skewer me and my pokemon together. Diving in opposite directions we both successfully hid behind unusually thick shrubs as trees literally rained on us and scattered shattered bark everywhere, one skimming the soft skin of my throat that caused me in reflex to gulp as a trickle of blood flowed under my shirt.

The Kirlia commenced to laugh manically, which actually came out as a cute little giggle, as it decided throwing spear-like objects the size of which would crush your skull in wasn't enough and so it set fire to projectiles with a well-timed will-o-wisp that served as flaming javelins. Now instead of simply cowering behind my cover, I was forced to dive from cover to cover as each one was burnt to a crisp. "Weasel" I just managed to gasp out, "Use rain dance to douse the blaze, then use blizzard once more!"

Beautiful, bountiful rainwater poured from the heavens and reduced the flames to mere wisps of steam and then froze up into tiny iced projectiles thanks to blizzard which demolished the uprooted trees hovering in the air due to the tutu-clad animal's physic power. Down from its high, it calmed its mind and alerted itself to attention, pinpointing its glare solely on me, It seemed the noise and ruckus created by the fight drew the attention of the numerous inhabitants including many Wurmple. A pale-red horned caterpillar with a cream-coloured underside and spikes erecting out of its back with twin stingers springing out its ass, that'll forever continue to be an annoyance to novice beginners.

An inventive, resourceful, clever and, in my most modest opinion, ingenious idea sprung to mind from a desire to win and an undertone of an incentive of revenge. "Buizel, grab two of those caterpillars and aim them directly at the physic. Then squeeze!" Latching on the tree as an abnormally nimble ninja of a pokemon, he swiped two Wurmple, ricocheted of the bark, landing neatly back on the soft earth and promptly squished the two into unleashing a desperate stream of string that constricted the Kirlia. Before it could recover and teleport away I instructed Weasel to freeze the string which by proxy froze my opponent too since the string was connected it. I commanded my only pokemon to subdue the trapped pokemon with toxic which is highly poisonous move that bubbled along the ground, sending the wildlife scurrying in retreat and rotting the vegetation to the core. I kneeled down and produced my army knife which I used to shred and tear into the cocoon of string entangling it while carefully avoiding skin contact to prevent spreading the poison.

Once the cocoon was shredded into ribbons and discarded amidst the forest I honked the creature up and smashed the butt of my revolver into the back of its skull, rendering it unconscious. Whipping out a pokeball with an audible click, the capsule opened and the creature was caught. I felt a sense of achievement of my accomplishment yet I did not feel proud of it. It's undeniable that no mere wild pokemon could face off against a true trainer. It fought courageously yet its struggle was ultimately futile and pointless.

I briefly considered stroking my pokemon in an effort to please to keep him loyal and avoid desertion, I could always just beat it into submission though so I immediately reconsidered and forgot about it. I certainly wasn't aiming to become friends with him; he was a tool at my disposal in pursuit of pleasing my master after all.

Slashing vines, hacking trees and crawling through the mud-pits that stank to high-heaven I managed to stagger onto the end of the road where a tiny wooden post declared that I have finally reached the entrance to Jubilife, the _City of Joy. _Or the city of modernization as only here could I access the technology I needed. However I met a blockade, in the form of an unruly drunk dressed in a sunset clash of a yellow and orange clown suit, before I could enter and reach the pokemon center for much needed rest for my pokemon _and _me. Ignoring his slurred promotional advertising of the latest poketch of the Poketch Company, I headed to the heart of the fourth largest city on the world, the pokemon center.

"Welcome to the pokemon center, I can heal your pokemon and we have lodging for an overnight stay if you so desire, so how can I help you?" Without a word in reply I left both pokeballs on her desk, hoping she possessed enough common sense to function properly and heal my pokemon. When she hesitantly seized the pokeballs of her desk I nodded as custom in these parts, established a suitable time to come back for them, then I waited at the rows of seats serving as a waiting area while I observed each tick of the clock passing by in silent patience when a teen my age presented himself with the most casually annoying greeting ever.

"S'up?"

Peering at the intruder with curiosity, my vision centred on a male with prickly white hair that was covered by ashen-coloured cap and reached the shoulders of his high-collared beige shirt, a bracelet of dull-grey beads decorated each wrist with similarly matching sweatbands over his forearms, the tail end of a crimson bandana was barely visible underneath his cap as well as his necklace which was framed by his large V-neck that exposed his chest. Disturbingly only one eye, as the other hid behind his lengthy bangs, stared half-lidded at me, regarding me with a mixture of mischief and interest and a hint of curiosity too.

He sprawled on the seat next to me even after I shuffled to a further seat away from him he bizarrely continued to lay his ass on the one closest to me. "The name's Kyokan". He handed out his hand in offer of acceptance. I didn't take it. "What's your problem?" I reluctantly asked.

""What's yours? Lonely?"

"Leave me alone!"

"But I'm so bored out of _my_ mind!"

"Why don't you bother someone else?"

"Take a look around; its two in the morning, there is no one else".

"Why don't you just fuck off then?"

"Why don't you?" He rebuked.

Getting up to do just that for I couldn't stand the way he slurred his works when he spoke from drawling them together painfully slowly, he halted my movement by swiftly pulling back on my arm, "Wait, chillax man. There's no rush. How 'bout we have a pokemon battle to chill our tension hmm?" A pokemon battle to calm ourselves? How ludicrous and absurd. He's clearly never battled for high stakes before, an obvious sign of a naive and ignorant trainer. Deciding to humour the trainer I answered, "Can't, my pokemon are still being healed".

"I know karate, and jujitsu for that matter, so why don't we fight, to settle our differences, man to man, all or nothing to the _death?" _A weird proposal right of the bat for sure, especially since we're strangers but I was perfectly fine with that and when that became clear to him he elaborated further, stuttering nervously as he did, "Of course I don't mean that quite so literally_". _Disappointing but still a certainly interesting prospect, I haven't had a decent fight since I first fought Weasel and what a glorious battle that had been, almost worthy of my stature. Leaving for the agreed location for the battlefield, the rehabilitation gym, I came back five minutes later dragging a bloody bruised "corpse" along the centre's floor that left a blood trail leading to Nurse Joy's desk. Squinting his blackened eyes at me he confessed, "Oka~y, maybe I lied about knowing karate, I seriously know jujitsu though! Honest!" Rolling my eyes at his blunt dishonestly I made sure to dump him on top of Joy's desk and ring the bell so he could receive the urgent medical attention he so desperately needed.

Grabbing the pokeballs left on the desk which were clearly mine, due to the tell-tale scratch marks on them, I headed out in the southwest direction towards the Global Terminal in order to transfer my newest catch and trade it in for cold cash at the Terminal previously known as the Global Trade station. Suddenly I realised I had yet to acquire a dawn stone to evolve the Kirlia into a Gallade necessary for the trade. Visiting the local pokemart proved useless for apparently they sell no such items-only the basic necessities for pokemon trainers. A stall or vendor will have to suffice, or even a travelling merchant if I could find one.

On my way to the Global terminal, right outside the pokecenter, a trainer's school could be seen with navy-blue walls and a deep tango coloured roof that stood put amidst the soaring skyscrapers that towered over half of the city. Displayed on the wall of the front of the school was a poster detailing a competition the school was holding tomorrow, inviting all trainers no matter where from into it. Apparently it was going to be held for the advancement of education of the pupils with the higher years actually competing while the rest simply watched, meaning there's going to be a large audience for this one. Moreover, the most important piece of information was the bold statement at the bottom which declared the winner would be rewarded a handsome cash prize and one evolution stones. The dawn stone!

Venturing inside, I signed up at the receptionist desk for the competition, fled to the exit after being bombarded by promotional advertisers and various owners of vendors who have set shop for the event to use it to increase sales, then I advanced back to the pokecenter to book a room to rest for the night as I didn't fancy sleeping in the trees as I normally would.

Rested and ready, I re-entered the school only to come face to face with the woman from the Museum in Oreburgh, Sasayakana. Startled I immediately began interrogating her, "What are you doing here?"

"I work here, I teach History, my major focus is on pokemon fossils as that's the most fascinating part of our pokemon history. I heard of a machine in Oreburgh City that could revive fossils of pokemon from tiny shreds of DNA so I went to check it out. I just so happened to go to the Museum there too. And you?"

"I'm here for the competition, I'm usually not bothered by these sorts of things but I reward is something I'm _very _interested in".

"Well, good luck, you're going to need it as I'm participating too".

"I thought you just said you're a teacher".

"So? Who told you teachers aren't allowed to join in?" My silence answered her, "Exactly, no one. See you around".

And low and behold I did see her around, in the third round of the competition after beating two pussies into running to their mummies crying; the rules of the this game were different from the last two, each battle changed automatically each round and were dictated by a machine that chose them at random. Our match happened to be a two on two double pokemon battle; luckily I still possessed Kirlia so I could still participate.

Releasing my Buizel and Kirlia, Sasayakana released her pokemon as well, her first pokemon being a squid with a heavy, pale yellow, helix shell dotted with spikes, a sky blue body with ten tentacles, four of which are longer than the other six, a squid-like beak and eyes with vertical-line pupils in yellow eyes. I brought out my pokedex to examine the threat. _"__Omastar uses its tentacles to capture its prey. It is believed to have become extinct because its shell grew too large and heavy, causing its movements to become too slow and ponderous__". _Her second pokemon is another known extinct pokemon, Kabutops, a creature with two long legs with two claw-like toes each, two long sharp sickles which extends from Kabutops's exoskeleton, six hard spikes which erected out of the back of its neck-three on each side that lead down towards the beginning of its tail with its head covered in a rock-hard, semicircle-shaped armour and a stiff, brown tail protrudes from its back. _"__With sharp claws, this ferocious, ancient Pokémon rips apart prey and sucks their body fluids"._

"Kabutops, start this match off with an aqua tail, aim for Kirlia. Omastar freeze the water surrounding Kabu' with ice beam". The fusion of both attacks combined created a frozen spearhead around Kabutops that rocketed toward my physic pokemon. "Kirlia redirect its advance". Using physic it manoeuvred the attack into barrelling into the squid causing a heap of dust to spread. "Kirlia use future sight on her Omastar. Weasel, keep him covered with sonicboom". Rapid firing sonicbooms from his twin tails, the two opponent pokemon were forced back, giving Kirlia time to perform the move unhindered.

"Kabutops", Sasayakana called, "Use x-scissor on Kirlia for a super-effective attack. Om'star! Occupy his Buizel." Taking the initiative, Omastar used rock tomb to not only damage Weasel but to slow him down, while Kabutops branded his sickles in an x-formation within a misty glow and slashed the air unleashing twin claws of energy that sliced into my physic. Recovering from the super-effective move, Kirlia protected Weasel from the onslaught of rocks by teleporting him out the way then reappearing in front of Omastar, driving a thunderpunch into its squid-like beak, frying it in the process.

Finishing his assault, he moved onto Kabu' next, dispatching another thunderpunch that was barely blocked by a swift usage of hone claws to reinforce its sickles durability, weakening the physical blow yet the aftershock still damaged the Kabutops to its original efficiency, causing static to disperse in the air around the prehistoric predator, paralyzing it into immobilisation. "Weasel! Kirlia! Perform a duel assault combo move now. Use hydro-pump and charge-beam together on Kabutops while he's powerless!" An electric and water blast shot out and connected and combined into one destructive strike, obliterating the Kabutops into the brink of oblivion. Teetering of the edge of unconsciousness, Sasayakana ordered Kabu' to use mega drain on my Buizel which drained him of is energy, restoring its own.

For a speed boost I commanded Weasel to begin a rain dance which started a rainstorm, increasing his speed due to his special ability, swift swim. Sasayakana clearly knew this too for she countered my actions by having her Om'star fire off a gyro ball which increased in power in a positive correlation to the difference in speed of the user to the target-the slower the user is compared to the target, the higher the damage inflicted. No problem though as the increased speed meant that he could easily dodge it. That is until her Kabu' finally shook off its paralysis and boxed in my pokemon by spreading its sickles wide. Kirlia though, by my order, just managed to teleport in the way and take the hit, knocking all three pokemon back into the dirt. Omastar's gyro ball successful collision decreased in power as Kirlia's a lot slower due to physical ability and him not possessing the swift swim ability. Meaning all pokemon survived the hit.

Stabilising quicker than the rest, Kabutops finished off the downed physic using a close combat x-scissor bug-type move that amplified the damage toll inflicted on Kirlia, forcing it to stagger and fall unconscious.

My first pokemon loss since I started. It unnerved me more than I care to admit.

Recalling Kirlia back into its pokeball, I focused my attention on Weasel who was currently stumbling slowly away from Kabutops' range of attack. Sasayakana once again took action first, "Omastar, we've got him on the ropes, fire steady ice beams while Kabu' weaves in and out of range to attack with night slash, double back up if need be Kabu', don't risk being harmed". With the precise coordination of both pokemon and both attacks, Weasel struggled even under the influence of the rain to dodge each attack. Eventually he slipped up and received a dark-type slash to the snout for his troubles causing him to squeal and grip it with both paws in pain.

Becoming desperate I sought any advantage I could use.

Any at all!

Then I saw it. The brief lapse in Kabutops' attack that was created from a formulated pattern of coordinated movement around the battlefield. "There! Use blizzard at eight-o-clock". Direct on course, Weasel froze it still as a statue making me gasp in relief.

The enemy no longer outnumbered us.

Then with each crunch of ice that matched my heart missing a beat, Kabutops shattered his icy cage. Shit! I forgot! It's resistant to ice-type moves, no wonder it was able to break free so quickly. As it prepared to continue the combo assault I thought of another idea, this one completely fool-proof. When the Kabutops aligned itself with its partner I ordered another blizzard attack that Kabutops held steadfast against by order of its trainer to protect the obviously weaker Omastar that served as a support pokemon.

"Endure!"

Enduring the hit allowed Kabutops time to firmly entrap Weasel into a "corner" and enabled Omastar to take a cheap shot and sacrifice its partner to use a finally gyro ball in the pouring rain. Without a second delay, he fell to his knees, already knocked out before he finally hit the ground when the referee sitting idle during the match, spoke up to announce the winner, "By knockout Sasayakana wins the match and proceeds to the fourth round of the quarterfinals." The match however, wasn't finished, not without the worst pun/derogatory insult ever from that ever so sexy Sasayakana who was overcome with emotion from winning; she let out an uncharacteristic, colourful response.

"O~h!

You got _schooled! _Bitch!

_Author's notice: Excuse me if I come off as a review-whore but please review! Currently I only have less than ten reviews which, quite frankly, is the equivalent to fuck all. So any review, even hate or criticism, is appreciated. Several visitors and readers have read each chapter of my story yet most don't review so I don't know if it's shit or not and if it is shit, what needs improving. Still, thanks for reading, all five of you. That's all, Weasel12, out. _


	6. Empathy

_Chapter Five: Empathy_

_Disclaimer_

Pokémonis a registered trademark of Satoshi, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

"_All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart."__―__Tahereh Mafi_

_They brought me in the back of a truck to a remote location situated in the outer city, the building of which was surrounded by sea from the back, facing off against a cliff so high it challenged the tremendous waves of the sea to crash against it._

_They conditioned me there, tried to force me into achieving apathy, the ultimate enlightenment, the emotionless state they thought enabled true strength, as the creed they lived and based their whole lives on saw emotions as mere illusions, distractions to the greater picture. _

_They trained me, raising me for a sole purpose, of what I never found out. Though I suspected it to be world changing with the amount of resources and time used to train me and the other candidates. Those other candidates being the other children adopted by the "couple" that was a part of a much larger organization than themselves._

_They attempted to control me, to make me one of their own. Their efforts to do so and limit my emotions were initially fruitless. I was too stubborn to fold as were they, though that certainly never resulted from lack of trying. They were persistent; I have the marks and bruises to prove it. _

_They wouldn't stop trying._

_They never stopped. _

Defeated, I left the school ground, crossing the various streets and alleys, in search of a hotel or an inn to sleep for the night, waiting it out for the winner of the competition to hand the prize over to me. Stealing the stone directly from the organizer of the event was no good. Too difficult and way too much hassle, there may be guards and sentry posts everywhere. In correlation to the rarity of the item matched the price. And it was rare, super-rare even, perhaps ultra-rare. No. Better to hold back on this one and steal it from the winner, less people interfering then so it'll be easier too.

Registering myself at the receptionist desk, I had the infortune to meet the apparent cousin of the previous receptionist I met back at Oreburgh Cities Gym which led to a rather unpleasant and awkward conversation. Receiving my keys, I headed for the elevator and entered the en suite courtesy of my administrator and popped back some beers and one buck a piece M&Ms from the mini fridge.

Resting on the queen-sized bed I let time slip by until I drifted off to sleep, to be awaken from the alarm I set on my poketch watch app. The journey there was uneventful though I never got bored as the paranoia of passer-by's kept tension high.

I entered the school with a sullen look dressing my face as the familiar site reminded me of my recent loss, a loss at the hands of a girl nonetheless. A _girl! _Did she not realise what will happen to me if I don't deliver. No matter though, there are always other measures to resort to in getting what you want. Brandishing a knife as my gaze fixed on the finalists to see which unlucky one would dare win the competition. Mutterings arose throughout the crowd in the classroom as the tension grew when the two finalists prepared to battle. On one side was the ever glamorously beautiful arse in the form of Sasayakana, and the other side belonged to the glee-ridden figure of the weirdo I met back at the pokecenter, Kyokan.

Each reaching for their own pokeball, they both released a pokemon as the rules of this battle turned out to be a one on one single battle. She brought forth yet another revived fossil pokemon; a quadruped, black, tailed creature with a ebony shield-like face with grey horns akin to tribal markings adorning it as well as grey clawed feet and spikes that ran along its back, a beige coloured body with a black ridge along its back and black tufts surrounding its legs. A Bastiodon. "_When they lined up side by side, no foe could break through. They shielded their young in that way"._

Kyokan's turn revealed he owned his own Kirlia, it's no wonder then why he entered the competition, and he must want to evolve his pokemon into a Gallade as well. Not that he will survive the tournament if he wins. "This will be a one on one single pokemon battle between the combatants Sasayakana and Kyokan. Begin!"

"Bastiodon, use giga impact!" Cried Sasayakana as her ancient pokemon roared as it charged with crimson energy swirled around its form.

"Kirlia, dodge it and counter with fire-punch its behind." Swerving around the charging beast, Kirlia fired off a fist lit on fire at Bastiodon's blind spot and left and mini-sized burned imprint behind. "Now use grass knot and then finish it with ice beam Kirlia!" Too heavy and too slow, it couldn't dodge the trip which was very effective due to its weight and struggled to upright itself for the second assault.

"Defend yourself Basdon; block its attack with fire blast". A great burst of flames in the form of the kanji for Dai erupted from Bastiodon's mouth that clashed violently against the ice beam shot from his Kirlia that was eventually overcome and alit it from the effects of the fire-type move. Backing off, each trainer's pokemon retreated to recover ground and space themselves for a momentary break from the fight. Each pokemon panted hard yet Kirlia looked worse off from the confrontation as brief flickers of pain from the fire induced burn would flash across his face. That is until Bastiodon let out a pitiful whine as it too caught fire.

"Wha-? What happened?"

"Synchronize". Kyokan replied bluntly as if it needed no further explanation. When it became abundantly clear that she did in fact need an explanation as a blank look appeared on her face as he said it, he elaborated. "It's my pokemon's ability, when it suffers from a status problem it inflicts the user with the same status change" he explained in a rather uncharacteristically condescending way.

"No matter. Bastiodon, try outrage and annihilate that bitch!" In an outburst of pure rage that took form in blazing hot inferno that sucked in oxygen and burned ever brighter as it was unleashed onto his foe. Without a known incentive from its trainer the Kirlia took action, perhaps it communicated telepathically with its trainer's mind? With an abusive use of confusion, it managed to redirect the attack into the original user turning its dull shaded horns into a crispy black colour. "Now while it's disorientated Lia, use hypnosis!"

The two made eye contact and the illusion of drowsiness took hold in the creatures mind causing it to slump over into a deep slumber. "And now use dream-eater to finish this match".

"Not a chance, Basdon, sleep talk". Listing to its trainers command even during unconsciousness, Bastiodon followed its orders and randomly decided to let loose another outrage. Burst after burst of pure energy heated up to create a scorching sea of flames that caused a silent gasp in the crowd and sent them backing up with sweat marring their brow. "Dodge it Kirlia and keep your distance, it won't be able to sense you clearly in its state". Kyokan cried as the heat was taking its toll on him.

Literally.

And metaphorically for that matter too, the pressure must have been terrific.

True to his word his opponent's pokemon kept a barrage of attacks going but all of them missed and never reached the physic hovering above the battlefield by using telekinesis. "Lia attack it before it recovers and wakes up".

"No such luck I'm afraid". She spoke cheekily. _Sarcasm?_ "It's too bad but continuous use of outrage always causes temporary confusion meaning its status state is changed therefore the original status aliment it suffered is cured. Spontaneously her ancient pokemon grew confused and hit itself, startling it awake. "Now Basdon use smack down to ground it and release a flash cannon when you've got it in your center of sight". It raised itself onto its hind legs, smashing its front gigantic hooves back to the earth lifting a huge chuck of the floor and firing the projectile at his Kirlia with just brute force. A successful collision brought the tutu-clad creature careering down to the earth. Its tiny body repelled back of it, blood spurted out of it mouth, bruises formed along its right-side that took the lion's share of the impact, all-in-all not the best day Lia's ever experienced.

Rubbing salt into the wounds, her Basdon took advantage of the temporary lapse in the psychics concentration caused by a great deal of pain and collected and gathered all the energy from the surrounding lights into a tightly compressed orb of power and promptly launched it at its newly self-declared rival. The sphere shot forward tearing up its path and the ground beneath it without even being in contact and resounded against the psychic's petit face with an audible crack of a fractured jaw.

A collective aww left the crowd's lips as Kyokan managed to sweet talk his partner into getting back up and giving it his all. Though his opponent had something to say about that, "Just give up, you don't have a chance, your pokemon's injured. You shouldn't treat him like that. As my father always told me, a good trainer is blind, for he never sees when to give up; a great trainer isn't for he sees the point when he can only concede".

"Well, my father always used to tell me that… Well he never really said anything, in fact we never actually talk". _I smell unresolved family issues._ "Anyway-the point is if you give up, you'll always fail, if you keep trying you always have a chance and that's what I'm riding on tonight, besides your mother of course. Anyw~ay, while we were conversing my pokemon properly fully recovered by now, so Lia! It's time for your secret special technique, shadow sneak.

Much to everyone's surprise, the psychic performed the ghost orientated move without a hitch and prosperously sunk into its own shadow and extended it throughout the floor to pop out behind the shield-faced pokemon's back and slash at its unprotected backside, continually repeating the move to pursuit its blind spot to deal hefty damage. With a grunt of pain it endured the hits, barely hanging on thanks to tensing its muscles prior to the attacks it knew was coming.

"Sandstorm Bastiodon! Focus the eye of the storm at Kirlia". Whipping up a sandstorm with its supernatural powers, it centred the attack on the emotion pokemon creating a vicious storm of sand that got progressively narrower and higher to contain and entrap the evolution of Ralts. "Now encircle it and trap it within a sphere just like we practiced". With precise and control and years of practice, Basdon managed to bend the storm into a condensed sphere similar to its flash cannon. "Now condense it further and set it aflame with fire blast!" Growing smaller still, the sphere of sand caught fire and become a miniature sun that threatened to cook his Lia alive. Kyokan could only watch on in awe at the beautiful execution of the move and how crazy Sasa' must be to have come up with it.

And how dangerous she was too.

It was only when he realised the prominent danger his pokemon was in that his focus returned to the match. "You got away with it last time but there's no way your battle partner can escape now, concede quietly and I'll order my Basdon to drop the combo-technique. Unless you want me to keep compressing until your pokemon either burns to a crisp or is squished by the sand. I wonder which will kill it first". She pondered thoughtfully while pushing her index finger against her chin. "Though I would imagine both would be rather unpleasant" she spoke jokingly… _I think_.

Whether in pure denial of his imminent defeat or purely running on reckless abandon and adrenaline he continued the match regardless of the ominous threat lingering in the air, ordering Lia to fight back, "Lia! That heats nothin' so turn the it up more, use sunny day".

"What!? You crazy, motherfucker?"

_Nothin'? Clearly the heat has made him quite delusional, not to mention dysfunctional. _

Obliging his master, _through reluctant I bet, _it carried out the move fabricating sunlight that raises the power of fire-type moves to a significant degree, visually making the mini sun burn brighter. "What are you doing? You do realise you're just making it worse don't you?" questioned Sasayakana bluntly.

"O~h, silly naïve little girl, lesson one-zero-one, if you superheat sand to an extraordinary degree, what happens?"

"It turns to glass!"

Coincidently, the orb of flaming sand just began to harden into molten rock and constantly break apart and form again to create a perfectly spherical sphere of glass. "Now wha-?" Simply holding his hand up to quieten her, he spread his fingers and counted down from three, on zero the sphere fell with no constant tornado to hold it, it collapsed and shattered on contact with the floor freeing the Kirlia from its previous confinement.

"Hyper voice Lia!" Letting loose a rather amusing low toned shout, sound waves started to ripple from her petit mouth and rebound harmlessly off the ancient creature. "Lesson one-zero-one on pokemon's hidden abilities, Basdon is soundproof therefore all sound based attacks are useless against him. How's that Mr I think I know it all but actually don't bitch-nerd. Basdon, bulldoze and flatten his pokemon into a pancake".

_How did she become a teacher anyway, she seemed so sweet, surprisingly she ain't. _

"_Jesus Christ! _Whatever, use trick room Kirlia". The room warped and shifted and flickered briefly into another dimension causing the slowest to become the fasted and vice versa. Meaning Bastiodon's charge sped up significantly and Kirlia's movements became sluggish and slow. "What's the point of that, you just quickened your defeat".

"Not so, teleport then finish this with hidden power" Kyokan said with flair and an air of finality. Continuing its charge despite Kirlia already teleporting away, because of the unpredicted increase in speed, it crashed into the wall and face planted itself causing heavy self-injury due the increase in momentum induced by the speed boost. Dazzled and fazed, Lia opportunely dived closer and released a barrage of flying fury fists that connected solidly each time with an audible gasp along with it resulting in a battered and beaten husk of a pokemon though still alive. "I trained my Lia so his stats would match a usefully typed hidden power; I choose to train him to produce a fighting-type hidden power move, in preparation of her evolving into Gallade, which is super-effective on a Bastiodon".

"Winner of the single pokemon battle by knockout and overall champion of the tournament is Kyokan!" announced the referee who plastered himself to the outer walls during the battle to avoid the carnage caused by the match.

"Great battle" she shouted over the excited cheers of the crowd.

"You too".

After both participants left the "arena" for the side-lines, the chairman of the association took center in the class to present the prize to the crowd as he introduced the winner of the competition to the center stage. "It's my pleasure to welcome and congratulate the winner of the competition, and of the prize of the dawn stone, Mr Kyokan. Congratulations!"

Off screen I had made my way through the crowds, shoving others to the side to get as close as possible to Kyokan who finished off showing off his prize and thanking the audience. Watching him leave amidst the crowd dispersing, I hurried along and eventually slowed my pace when we both left the building to follow him at a more sedate pace to reach a discreet location before I prise the evolution stone from his dead cold hands.

Nearly losing him on a corner to a suspect back alley, I cut him off on the next, sliding my knife into my hand behind my back. Noticing my presence blocking his path he looked up from admiring his stone as a flash of remembrance appeared on his face, "I know yo~u; I beat your ass last time we met at the pokemon center".

"Clearly I knocked your head one too many K', because you've must have forgotten that _I'm _the one that owned _your_ ass".

"Debatable".

"Not really". I replied indignantly.

"So what do you want, I'm guessing you aren't here for a pleasant chat".

"What makes you say that?" I asked with a hint of venom.

"Just a hunch".

Pointing with my left hand at his prize, as the right concealed a weapon; I made it very clear the object of my desire.

"You want my shirt?! No way man, this ain't cheap, I know I make the shirt damn sexy but it's not for sale, besides you don't suit this look, you know, the sexy females love the shirt but would still prefer it off _if you know what I mean_ look-"

"No you idiot!" Cutting him off right there before it got out of hand, "The dawn stone, I want the stone".

"Well, why didn't you say so, of course you can-

Not have this either so no!" Kyokan screamed as he made to leave.

Halting him in his tracks with a firm grasp on his shoulder, I set him straight, explaining how much I needed the stone and what it would cost me if I didn't return with it.

"A rematch". When it became obvious I didn't quite understand he clarified, "That's the price of the stone, and you want that badly?" _Yes! _"Then take it!" He shouted, reaching out his arm and tightly enclosing his palm around it, "If you can". One second and a quick jab to the face, a knee jerk to the stomach and a slap to his palm later, the stone left his grip with him rolling across the narrow alleyway in agony, clutching his sore spots all over his face and torso in pitiful humiliation. I bent down to capture the stone but hesitated at the last moment when he groaned and rose back to his feet.

Observing him picking himself back up and seizing the stone I got back into a balanced fighting stance, legs spread wide with the left a yard in front of the right, knees slight bent, arms outstretched and fists raised, preparing to continue fighting. "For real this time".

Unpredictably, Kyokan took the inceptive and leaped upwards, flying straight into a drop kick leading with his right that planted itself firmly into my face due to being caught off guard. Rebounding off me he followed up a roundhouse kick from the opposite side and connected my mug to the adjacent wall spraying it with blood. _My blood! _I performed my stance again, this time taking it seriously, catching the second drop kick in an iron grip and whipped his body into the side wall that brought forth an extremely satisfying squeal from my opponent.

Rearing back my head in mocking laughter ended in being suckered punched in the abdomen in a flurry of lightning fast pounds with a finisher three-sixty backhand to the cheek leaving me in a daze throwing a hissy fit at myself to be beaten like this. Dodging another attempted sucker punch I leapt and executed a perfect split mid-air against both wall of the alley causing K' to stagger on his next attack. Dropping down, I wrapped my legs around his head and threw him overhead with great lower body strength. Rising back up to exchange a blur of fists together that were each naked to the human eye that brutally left knuckle-deep imprints in each other's skin. Fed up, I lowered my fists and took a couple of cheap shots to bend down, turning him around back-to-front and lifted him overhead to crack his skull of the concrete street in a tiger suplex finish.

Unbelievably he managed to stand up yet again forcing me into my customary stance by reflex to prepare myself to continue fighting. Instead Kyokan waved his hand flapped his white shirt in surrender and reached out and handed me the stone. As I grasped the stone and left the alley to leave him alone after such a weird confrontation, I stared into space, bewildered at his generous actions.

Leaving for the hotel I checked in earlier that day, I rested back under the duvet as I thought back on the times we've somehow managed to bump into each other: the meeting at the pokemon center that resulted in some bizarre fight that started for no real reason, the pokemon competition we both entered for the exact same reason, the confrontation over the dawn stone just outside the school in an isolated back-alley and the time ages ago when I was a mere infant I swear I remember his face way back then. These thoughts lead me onto his name I've just forgotten. _Seriously _it was on the tip of my tongue. I nickname him K' so this wouldn't matter. My mind incurred a flashback out of the blue when I linked the letter K together with his name.

"_The name's Kyokan_".

Kyokan meaning…

…Empathy.

_Author's notice: As a helpful suggestion, as since this story clearly orientates around action and not friendship or romance or any of that crap, try to space reading each chapter out for the late comers not following the story*which you should*, excuse the shameless self-promotion, especially after reading a fluffy snuff romance in an improperly entitled story that secretly contained slash yaoi. F~uck it I hate it when that happens. I'm not homophobic*just sayin'*, I'm just straight. Oh and please review, it would me the world to me. That's all folks, Weasel12 out._


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